# Alabama v. United States Department of Commerce *Alabama v. United States Department of Commerce*, 546 F. Supp. 3d 1057 (M.D. Ala. 2021), is the only case in which a federal court has been asked to rule on the lawfulness of a statistical disclosure-avoidance method. The State of Alabama, a member of Congress and two Alabama voters sued in March 2021 over two Census Bureau decisions: the delivery date for the [[2020 Census]] redistricting file, and the Bureau's use of [[Differential Privacy]] to protect it. They argued the method would make the data unfit for drawing districts and sought an order barring its use outright. A three-judge court decided the case on 29 June 2021 without reaching the method. Alabama was held not to be "a person aggrieved" within the meaning of the Census Act's review provision and was dismissed with prejudice on that count. The individual plaintiffs showed "no injury-in-fact sufficient to confer Article III standing ... at this point," on claims the court described as "riddled with contingencies and speculation that impede judicial review." A procedural claim survived, but the preliminary injunction was denied on delay — "Plaintiffs waited approximately forty-two months" after the announcement they were challenging. A concurrence noted that the plaintiffs had argued the method was unlawful no matter where its parameter was set and then, when met with a timeliness defence, argued that its effects had not been apparent: "Plaintiffs can't have it both ways." The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed on 9 September 2021 and the redistricting data was released that August. > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. ## See also - [[Federal Disclosure Avoidance Crosswalk]] — the instruments that choose a statistical method, and the finding that no court has ever reviewed one - [[Differential Privacy]] · [[2020 Census]] · [[Census Bureau]] - [[Department of Commerce]] · [[Census Data Access Crosswalk]]